A Hand That Does Not Strike
by CressidaKnightlark
Summary: After his arrest there is next to no one who wants to have relations with Corvo. But there is one. [A Dishonored one-shot with an OC.]


"You have a visitor", a guard said bluntly, nodding to the person behind him to step forward. Corvo sat up in his hard and (to say the least) uncomfortable bed, turning his gaze to the barred side of his prison cell. His eyes met a familiar pair of bluish grey. Her silky, black hair was in a single braid, hanging over her shoulder, and she gave a gentle but slightly sad smile. Esther.

Corvo hadn't been friendless before his arrest, not at all. Allegations of murdering the Empress and his imprisonment, however, had had a funny way of leaving him socially stranded. There were few who had the courage of speaking kindly (or at least not badly) of him and even fewer who came to see him anymore. Not that he blamed people for that. It was not just bold to side with him, even to some extent, it was downright dangerous as it could have been seen as treason. But there were still some who came to see him in prison. Esther, for instance.

"I'll be watching you", the guard said and headed to a table opposite of his cell. He sat down there and began to play cards by himself. Esther on the other hand found her place on the stony floor. Corvo crawled to her like a dying man in the middle of a desert toward an oasis.

"Corvo", she whispered with her voice heavy from sorrow and anguish. She had visited numerous times before but she always said his name the same way. He had almost begun to hate it, the manner in which she said his name. It sounded like she was taking her last breath. It was dripping pain.

She reached between the bars to wrap her arms around him and he returned the gesture. It was almost the only physical contact he got to enjoy anymore, and he was hungry for it each time she visited. Surely she would have liked to pull away sooner but she always allowed him to hold her as long as he pleased anyway. She would simply stand (or sit) there patiently until he was ready to let her go. He never was, but he couldn't exactly grow roots on her.

When they finally separated, Esther began to talk about her life as a maid in Dunwall Tower. Simply everyday things, how she had overheard a guard talking about his new mistress, how people demanded food at the strangest of hours, how she had accidentally burned general Tobias' dinner and filled the kitchen with thick smoke to the point where the kitchen staff had had to leave the area and several guards had been called to deal with the situation. She also told him how the incident had almost been the professional end of her. Simple, everyday things that Corvo liked to hear to get his mind off his current situation. Esther never said a word about the political situation outside the Coldridge walls, never speculated his life and fate, never mentioned the wounds she undoubtedly saw on him. She would simply touch him gently where he had been injured, bringing pleasure to the places where pain had been inflicted. Of all this he was grateful.

Esther talking about her life as a maid was her talking about a life Corvo had brought her into. She had been a maid before, in a house of a high lord who had kicked her out without a warning, with no place to go and without her rightful (and lawful) payment. Corvo had found her wandering around the city, trying to earn her daily bread by any means (in fact, the first part of her he had met had been her hand reaching for his pouch). Instead of sending her to prison, he had decided to throw some kindness in her way by asking Jessamine to offer her work in the tower. Not that it had ever been greatly discussed between them, but Corvo had even paid Esther's former employer a visit and returned with the money she had earned in his house but hadn't received. His only condition for all this had been that she would never let her judgement fail like that again, and she had promised him she wouldn't.

"Ginny got proposed. Just two days ago, by an officer. Maybe you know him, his name is Wells… Joseph, if I remember correctly. Anyway, and if you don't mind me saying, it would be a smart match. He's decent and treats her well, and surely it couldn't hurt that he could take care of her. You know how we make a living; it's enough to live on but… Maybe I shouldn't be saying this but Ginny likes to spend money even when she has none. I know, it's a terrible thing to say but it's also true. So, she told me that she would consider it. She had told him she couldn't decide on the spot and would need some time to think…" Esther babbled on, talking about the most insignificant of things. He was listening to her, but in a way he was not listening at all. What she was saying held little meaning and they both knew it. She could have been reading a book on a theory of origin of matter out loud to him and it would have been just as meaningful. It was her voice, the experience of being talked to like a normal person, the memory of any kind of normality that he so treasured.

Time passed quickly (far too quickly, he thought) as Esther kept talking about her friend Ginny's relationship, the latest rumours, and all the silly mistakes and accidents she had endured. All through her stories she kept physical contact with him, resting his arm on her lap, drawing invisible letters on his skin with her index finger, running her hand lightly through his dirty, messy hair in a half-hearted attempt to get any discipline in it, even rubbing his shoulders which were, there was no lying about it, aching and sore from cold and unkind sleeping conditions. The more he felt her touch the more it hurt his heart as he knew she would be leaving him again soon.

"That will do. I'm sorry but I have to ask you to leave, miss. Your time is up", the guard said from his spot. Corvo and Esther both threw the man a quick glance and began to stand up and bring the visitation to an end.

"I will be back as soon as I can, in a week maybe. From now on I won't be able to come as often. They have begun to extend the waiting time for visitation request approvals, don't know why. It makes things more difficult." She lowered her gaze and caught her lower lip between her teeth. It was a habit of hers she had had as long as he could remember, since the very beginning. It all felt so distant now, like decades ago.

Esther wrapped her arms around him and pulled him as close as the bars between them allowed. "I know it sounds… stupid, but try to stay strong", she said quietly before pulling away. He simply nodded stiffly, trying to hide it from her just how badly it really hurt him to see her go. It would be a long time before he would be shown such kindness and friendship again.

When the guard was escorting her away, she kept looking at him, and she watched him until she disappeared behind a corner. It felt lonely again. Corvo turned around and went to his hard bed to linger in the fresh memory of her love and wait for the moment when he could once more experience a touch meant to heal and not harm.


End file.
